Teenage Miley Cyrus’ “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” Cover Is Shockingly Excellent

At just 17 years old, former The Voice Coach Miley Cyrus delivered an epic cover of one of the biggest rock songs of the 1980s: Poison’s soaring break-up power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

The cover is from her third studio album, 2010’s Can’t Be Tamed, which she performed on her Gypsy Heart Tour the following year. Watch a live performance here, and listen to the studio version of Cyrus’ cover, below.

What to know about “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison

Using a simple but potent metaphor, the song is about a cheating partner whom the singer still loves, blaming themself for the relationship falling apart. Released in 1988, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was the band’s only number-one hit stateside and has since become their signature song.

“I was trying to capture being at that point in your relationship where it’s not officially over, but it’s over,” Poison’s lead singer Bret Michaels told Louder Sound. “There I was, out on the road, getting to play music for a living, which was the rose. But then there was my exotic dancer back in LA, who I was positive would never cheat on me. Or so I thought. That was the thorn.”

How Poison inspired Miley Cyrus’ sound

“[Cyrus’] first concert she ever went to was to see Poison in Nashville at the Starwood Amphitheatre,” Michaels recalled to People. “She said to me, ‘It changed my life.’ She goes, ‘That’s when I knew I wanted to mix my rock, my pop, my country,’ and I said, ‘I’m honored.'”

When it came time to record Can’t Be Tamed, Cyrus reached out to Michaels for his help with the “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” cover.

“Miley was incredible. We were in New York and we just started talking. She was recording, and she wanted to record the song,” he told People. “We went down and recorded ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn.'”

“Bret and I had a great time in the studio together, just hanging out and making music,” Cyrus said at the time, per MTV. “It was so surreal to have him sit down with his acoustic guitar and walk me through ‘Every Rose.'”